In the glory days of web 1.0, social websites would prominently link out to their digital neighbors via lists known as webrings; magical doorways to an expansive hinterland of digital villages.

In the glory days of web 1.0, social websites would prominently link out to their digital neighbors via lists known as webrings; magical doorways to an expansive hinterland of digital villages.

Let’s envision what a truly federated chat like Matrix could do to improve the cross-connectivity of chat channels. Most of these features are already possible, they just haven’t been implemented yet in a community-oriented client experience.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝AEnglish
    8·
    9 months ago

    We can bring back the cozy vibes of the old web neighborhoods. Not by regressing to a bygone era, but by building the web one-and-a-half that should have been; a Web of the People.

    Weirdly, a while back I wrote:

    It is increasingly clear to me that a lot of directions Web 1.0 was evolving in were diverted or just killed off by Big Tech’s landgrab which built walled gardens. I see the Fediverse as a return to the idea of blogs (micro and macro), forums, etc but in a more natural progression to interoperability. This still isn’t perfect and there may be other early web ideas, like webrings, that improve discoverablity.

    It’s a pity they don’t really talk about federated webrings and largely ignore the opportunities for webrings in the wider Fediverse instead focusing on Matrix and Discord.

    And I was thinking we needed Web 2.0b, they are suggesting an early “fork” Web 1.5.